Promoting Positive Youth Development: An Investment in Youth & Communities

What Do Youth Need to Develop Positively?

Involving youth in their communities is, in fact, one of the most important approaches to helping youth develop a sense of competence, usefulness, belonging, and power:

• Sense of competence: Mastering job skills through involvement in community projects
• Sense of usefulness: Taking responsibility for community projects and being asked for their perspectives and ideas
• Sense of belonging: Receiving support and guidance from caring adults and identifying with a neighborhood- or faith-based institution or an ethnic or social group
• Sense of power: Learning about their options in planning for a career and having access to more education or training

So what can you do to create an approach that helps youth develop positively?

What Can You Do? >>